Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2, 6-7, 11-12, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating (US 11950169) in view of Xin (US 20250227435).
Regarding Claims 1 and 11, Keating teaches a network device (Col.9:lines 25-27, Col.4:lines 4-13 and Fig.4:410, “As a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite equipped with a gNB with fixed beams moves along its orbit, the location management function (LMF) requests the position of a UE. FIG. 1 shows the scenario; The gNB triggers the UE to transmit an SRS burst with a first periodicity T1 (e.g., using DCI).) comprising a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein, the memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to send and receive data under control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:
receiving, by the network device, an uplink positioning request message from a Location Management Function (LMF) (Fig.4:410);
determining, by the network device, a plurality of positioning measurement time instants (Col.3:lines 57-58 and Col.4:lines 18-32, gNB determines periodicity/time instance T2) and satellite information corresponding to each positioning measurement time instant (Col.4:lines 50-54 and Col.8:lines 41-45, gNB knows the satellite information (e.g. id/position), hence must determine); at each positioning measurement time instant.. obtain a plurality of positioning measurement results (Col.4:lines 50-54); and sending, by the network device to the LMF, the plurality of positioning measurement results and the positioning measurement time instant corresponding to each positioning measurement result and/or satellite information corresponding to each positioning measurement result (Col.4:lines 50-54), however Keating does not expressly teach instructing, by the network device, to a satellite corresponding to the positioning measurement time instant to perform uplink positioning measurement and obtain a plurality of positioning measurement results.
Xin teaches instructing, by the network device, to a satellite corresponding to the positioning measurement time instant to perform uplink positioning measurement (Par.171, Par.178-179, SRS configuration and gNB/TRPs 6b transmit respective request to obtaining positioning information to corresponding satellites. Note: satellite information must be utilized here to transmit) and obtain a plurality of positioning measurement results (Par.169, Par.180, measurement results). Therefore, to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to modify Keating with the teachings of Xin. Both references are directed to the same field (5G NTN positioning), and Xin’s network-based control and scheduling is a known technique for improving measurement reliability and flexibility, it would be natural and predictable to use Xin’s scheduling to trigger and coordinate the measurements performed in Keating’s system ensuring that the measurement occurs at the correct time and under the correct configuration (e.g. SRS resource, timing, etc) as the satellite moves. This combination would yield a system where the network not only receives and processes satellite measurements (Keating) in optimal fashion but also ensures precise network control, timing, and ability to adapt to network and satellite dynamics.
Regarding Claim 6, the rejection of Independent Claim 1 and 11 fully addresses and rejects the limitations of Independent Claim 6 with obvious wording variations.
Regarding Claims 2, 7, and 12, Keating teaches wherein the satellite information comprises one or more of the following: identification information of a satellite; location information of a satellite; transmission-reception point (TRP) information, wherein the TRP information comprises identification information of one or more TRPs and location information of each TRP (Col.4:lines 50-54 and Col.8:lines 41-45).
Regarding Claim 16, Keating teaches An LMF, comprising a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein, the memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to send and receive data under control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform steps of the method according to claim 6 (Fig.4).
Claims 3-5, 8-10, 13-15, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keating (US 11950169) and Xin (US 20250227435) in further view of ETSI (ETSI TS 138305 V16.4.0).
Regarding Claims 3, 8, and 13, While Keating and Xin teach an LMF transmitting a uplink measurement request (Fig.4, Keating) and determining, by the network device, the plurality of positioning measurement time instants (See Rejection of Claim 2 above), the combination does not expressly teach the uplink positioning request message comprises time information of uplink positioning measurement; determining, by the network device, the plurality of positioning measurement time instants based on the time information of the uplink positioning measurement.
ETSI teaches uplink positioning request message comprises time information of uplink positioning measurement (Pg.84: section 8.10.2.4; Table 8.10.2.4-1 and Pg.85: Table 8.10.2.4-3, uplink positioning timing information (e.g. UL timing information, Activation time) and Pg.89-90: section 8.10.3.2.2-section 8.10.3.2.3). By this teaching, it is obvious that determining, by the network device, the plurality of positioning measurement time instants, as taught by Keating and Xin, would be based on the time information of ETSI. To one of ordinary skill in the art, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Keating and Xin with the teachings of ETSI to provide a system where the LMF not only requests measurements but also explicitly defines the timing (period, start/end time) for those measurements, as taught by the standards, to achieve more reliable and accurate UE positioning in non-terrestrial networks.
Regarding Claims 4, 9, 14, and 19, ETSI teaches the time information of the uplink positioning measurement comprises one or more of the following: one or more time instants of performing the uplink positioning measurement; time requirement information of the uplink positioning measurement (ETSI: Pg.84: section 8.10.2.4; Table 8.10.2.4-1 and Pg.85: Table 8.10.2.4-3, uplink positioning timing information (e.g. UL timing information, Activation time) and Pg.89-90: section 8.10.3.2.2-section 8.10.3.2.3).
Regarding Claim 5, 10, 15, and 20, ETSI teaches the time requirement information of the uplink positioning measurement comprises one or more of the following: start time of the uplink positioning measurement; end time of the uplink positioning measurement; a time interval of the uplink positioning measurement; a quantity of uplink positioning measurements (ETSI: Pg.84: section 8.10.2.4; Table 8.10.2.4-1 and Pg.85: Table 8.10.2.4-3, uplink positioning timing information (e.g. UL timing information, Activation time) and Pg.89-90: section 8.10.3.2.2-section 8.10.3.2.3).
Regarding Claim 17, Keating teaches the satellite information comprises one or more of the following: identification information of the satellite; location information of the satellite; TRP information, wherein the TRP information comprises identification information of one or more TRPs and location information of each TRP (Col.4:lines 50-54 and Col.8:lines 41-45).
Regarding Claim 18, the rejection of Claims 3, 8, and 13 fully address the limitations of Claim 18.
Conclusion
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/WESLEY L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2648
